I'm Backing Britain - Campaign Winds Down

Campaign Winds Down

After the AEU banned the four Colt shop stewards from office, the shop stewards recommended to the workers at the Havant factory on 10 February that they stop working unpaid overtime because of the strife it had brought to the union, although the works director thought that the workers would in fact continue and pointed to the fact that the AEU was not the only union present. Joan Southwell, one of the original five secretaries at the head office, said that they would definitely continue as "we are all very solid about this in spite of the union disagreement". However, on 12 February the workers decided by a narrow majority to return to normal working hours.

In early February, The Times went round to ask supermarket chains what effect the campaign was having, and found that it varied between "very little" and "none at all". By the middle of March, the Industrial Society was hinting that it needed a grant from the Government to keep going. It had encouraged local civic leaders across the country to set up local committees of industrialists and trade unionists. The television series "Dad's Army", the opening episode of which was recorded on 15 April 1968, began with a contemporary scene in which Alderman Mainwaring was the chairman of the Walmington-on-Sea "I'm Backing Britain" campaign.

Another reference to the campaign appeared in the title of a newspaper comic strip collection. From a distance its title appeared to read The Perishers Back Britain; only on closer inspection could the full title be read as The Perishers: Back Again to Pester Britain.

The Sunday Times ran a large article by Nicholas Tomalin on 3 March about "the serious and comic history of a patriotic idea". Tomalin quoted one of the original Surbiton typists as saying "we got mixed-up when asked horrid questions about trade unions. Thanks to all the interviews and things, we just didn't get any typing done". Also in March, the campaign moved from the Industrial Society's headquarters at Bryanston Square to rent-free offices donated by National Cash Register. It was immediately noted that National Cash Register was a wholly owned subsidiary of an American corporation. The Industrial Society's staff working on the campaign were down to four in May 1968.

Maxwell declared his campaign was officially over on 5 August; although the Industrial Society was still receiving about 15 letters a day, its campaign was limited to sending out badges and promotional material to people who had requested them, and it declared that the campaign office would close at the end of September. Retrospectively, Bernard Levin saw that the enthusiasm had subsided "after a month or two" and that the badges and slogans were seen no more.